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Show 1890.] ANTELOPES OF NYASA-LAND. 651 up the country for whites ; the past, however, except for Bandawe possibly Mweniwanda's, has done practically nothing, while the loss of human life has been proportionately enormous. I now proceed to give my notes on the Antelopes that I have met with in Nyasa-land :- 1. CODUS ELLIPSIPRYMNUS. The Water-buck is by far the commonest of those Antelopes which go in herds, and it would be hard to set foot anywhere in Nyasa-land-except, of course, in the immediate vicinity of large villages, or in the very precipitous country which in places rises sheer out of the Lake-where these animals are not to be seen in greater or less numbers. There is only the one species, I take it, C. ellipsiprymnus; but in this I have noticed variety, animals frequenting the open plains being rather lighter in colour than those of the wooded highlands where they are often found. The natives seemingly only recognize the one species, known as the" Nakodzwi" or " Nyakodzwi" of the Ajawa and of the Anyauja, the " Ipiva " of the Angoni, the " Chuzu " of the Achewa, Atonga, Atembuka, Ahenga, and Anyika (Apoka), and the "Lipuwa" of the Ankonde. All over Nyasa-land, as I have said, Water-buck are plentiful, and it would be almost impossible to enumerate every locality where I have seen them ; I can, however, note a few places where they have appeared to be most numerous. On the west coast, to the north of Cape Maclear and about a day's journey west of Mpemba's, I saw great numbers in September and October, 1885. I was at that time hunting Elephants, and the Water-buck proved a positive nuisance, since they constantly ran in on the former and put them on the qui-vive. To the north of " Chombi " or " Piri Ngoma " (Anglicc, Mt. Waller), and between it and tbe Hara River, I saw immense herds, and from there again right away to the foot of the Wa-kinga Mountains to the north-west of the Lake, a distance of some 130 miles, I was scarcely ever out of sight of Water-buck or their spoor, when I made the journey in 1889. In the vast swamps of Kisako and Kisali, at the foot of the Wa-kinga Mountains, I saw more Water-buck than I have seen anywhere, except on the plains of the Shire river. On the East Coast I came across a few in 1887, in the hills bordering the Lake, to the south of Chiteji's ; here the country is rocky and precipitous right down to the water, but there is a small belt of reeds if no swamp. Water-buck are always found in greatest numbers on large swampy plains overgrown with coarse grass, tall reeds, and papyrus, where in the wet season it is almost impossible to get at them . unlike other Antelopes, except the Reed-buck, they do not appear to leave the lowlands in the rains, but keep to the plains all the year round ; apparently they revel in almost impassable swamps where only Elephants, Buffaloes, and Reed-bucks care to stay, and I have occasionally followed them in mud and water almost waist- |